932 The American Naturalst. [ October, 
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey read a paper, and described, with charts, some 
of the peculiarities and phonetic types of the Siouan language. 
Mrs. Anita Newcomb McGee read a paper entitled ‘‘ An Experi- 
ment in Human Stirpiculture.’’ 
« It is not generally known that a carefully planned and methodi- 
cally conducted experiment in human stirpiculture, probably the most 
extensive and systematic of modern times and civilized people, was 
carried on during the years 1808 to 1879 in Central New York. 
originator of the experiment was a zealous but logical enthusiast, the 
late John Humphrey Noyes; the purpose was the promotion of sanc- 
` tity į the place and the means were the Oneida community. 
« In early life Noyes founded the peculiar sect called perfectionists, 
which in 1848 gathered disciples to the number of eighty-seven at 
Oneida. Here the community of goods and also of person was prac- 
ticed, a system of complex marriage in which the amative and propa- 
gative functions were separated having been established. 
« Until 1868 the birth-rate in the community was carefully limited, 
but at this date, financial success being assured and the members having 
increased to 250, the experiment in stirpiculture was begun. Its object 
was the increase of sanity in succeeding generations in order that sin, 
disease, and finally death might be abolished. Physique, intellect, 
hereditary qualities, mutual attraction, etc., were secondarily con- 
sidered. 
“ The first principle of this stirpiculture was continued in and in 
breeding with judicious mixture of foreign blood from time to time. 
Its second principle was the careful selection of individuals. From 
1869 to 1880 sixty children were born in pursuit of this plan. Of these 
five died at birth from unforeseen causes depending on the mothers, 
and one child was acknowledged a failure physically. Otherwise the 
experiment was progressing admirably, the children being given the 
best of care, when an unexpected result caused the failure of all Noyes’s 
plans. The spirit of monogamy, ruthlessly kept in check before, 
became so strong in consequence of the mating of one-quarter of the 
community for stirpicultutal purposes that the complex marriage system 
was given up in 1879. ‘The dissolution of the Oneida commtinity by 
mutual consent followed a year later. Noyes, foreseeing the end, had 
retired from Oneida, and died in 1886. 
“Of the stirpicultural children only one has since died, The 
others, now aged eleven to twenty-two years, are on the whole some- 
what above the outside average in physique and intellect. The blood 
: of the children came largely from farmers and mechanics, with a 




